Was Henry VIII this handscome?

RESEARCHERS who want the Queen’s permission to dig up Henry VIII may be able to recreate the way he looked with near-photographic accuracy.

Scientists want to use computer techniques to find out how handsome Henry VIII was

Bioarchaeologist Catrina Whitley and anthropologist Kyra Kramer aim to use new computer techniques to reconstruct the king’s ­exact facial features if his skull remains intact.

They want to see if he was as handsome as Jonathan Rhys Meyers ­depicted him in the BBC ­series The Tudors, co-starring Tamzin Merchant as his fifth wife Katherine Howard, and decide if a rare disease may have caused his foul temper.

The Sunday Express ­exclusively revealed last week how Henry may have ­suffered from genetic ­disease McLeod syndrome that turned him from a loved prince to a tyrant who had two of his wives ­beheaded.

The two US scientists can only prove he was insane rather than evil if they can persuade the Queen to ­allow them to carry out DNA tests on his skeleton at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

Dr Whitley said: “If our theory is correct that he had McLeod’s, which can cause schizophrenia, it will throw a whole new perspective on his behaviour.

“Using his skull to create a computer-generated image of how he really looked would be a wonderful ­conclusion to many years of painstaking research.”

Depictions of historical figures are ­inaccurate as artists were commissioned to paint flattering portraits of their subjects.

Whitley and Kramer believe that, if they can capture Henry’s true likeness, the process might be replicated for other significant figures from history.